The Serious Eats Guide to Carving Turkey

Step-by-step photographs and video for how to carve a roasted turkey.[Photographs: J. Kenji Lopez-Alt]

So you've followed one of our turkey recipes and have the golden beast in front of you. Now what? For many folks, the hardest part of cooking a turkey is carving and serving it. Depending on how you roasted the bird, the carving instructions will be a little different.

How to Carve a Roast Turkey

To carve a turkey, you'll need to start with a turkey. There's one step that takes place before you roast it, so start with it RAW.

Pull back the skin flap around the neck and you'll locate the wish bone—the small y-shaped bone that runs along the top of both breast halves.

Make the first incision along the outside edge of one branch of the Y.

Then repeat that cut on the other side of the same branch. Then repeat those two cuts on the other side. Finally, make a small horizontal incision at the very top of the bone where the two branches meet.

Grab the top of the bone with your finger, and pry it forward. It should come away with little effort. If it's stuck, use the tip of a sharp boning knife to cut through stubborn spots.

With the wishbone removed, it's going to be a lot easier to carve your turkey later. Now your turkey is ready to roast. Check out our Turkey Talk page for all the recipes you need.

Roasted and ready? Alright, Señor Gobbles. Time for your surgery.

Start by cutting the skin between the leg and the breast with a sharp chef's or boning knife, using a clean kitchen towel to hold the turkey in place with your free hand.

Once the skin is cut, pull the entire leg away from the body. It should separate quite easily, displaying the socket joint where the thigh meets the hip. Cut through this joint with the tip of your knife and the leg should be completely free. Just slice through the skin to release it.

Isn't it frightening how easy it is to remove a limb? You now have a whole leg in front of you, alongside a disabled turkey.

Locate the joint between the drumstick and the thigh by moving them back and forth and feeling with your fingertip. Slice through this joint.

Repeat with the other leg.

Flip one thigh over and cut along one side of the thigh bone to release a large chunk of meat.

Repeat with the other side of the thigh bone.

Slice the thigh meat into 1/2-inch pieces and transfer to a warm platter. Repeat with the other thigh. Add the drumsticks to the platter.

Locate the wing joint by articulating it, then slice through with a sharp chef's knife. Repeat with the other wing, then separate the drumettes from the flats and transfer all four wing pieces to the platter.

Slice into the breast on one side of the breast bone with a sharp boning knife.

Continue slicing, following the contour of the breast bone with the tip of the knife to remove as much meat as possible.

As you continue to work, the breast meat should begin to pull away from the bone. Help it along with the side of your knife until it's completely separated.

Once the breast falls away from the bone, cut through the bottom edge to completely separate it.

Repeat with the other side. You should now have all of the meat removed. Save the carcass for soup, if desired.

Slice the breast meat with a sharp knife at a bias. Tranfer to the warm platter.

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About the Author

J. Kenji López-Alt is the Managing Culinary Director of Serious Eats, and author of the James Beard Award-nominated column The Food Lab, where he unravels the science of home cooking. A restaurant-trained chef and former Editor at Cook's Illustrated magazine, he is the author of upcoming The Food Lab: Better Home Cooking Through Science, to be released by W. W. Norton.

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